To Know of Isolation
by Darkhymns
Summary: Though only a short time may pass in the present, a whole eternity of memories washes through Naruto, and he realizes just why he can't let Gaara be taken away. During Shippuden episode 19.


**Basically, this was written very quickly, kinda like a reflex. So nothing's too accurate in it and was really a response after seeing the Shippuden episodes. (Oh how I want the OST, oh so badly). Not exactly original here as I pretty much wrote on what happened during one moment of an episode, but well...that moment was really cool! Watching Naruto get all mad makes me happy! And maybe someone will like this little scrap. Currently writing another Naruto fanfic, which will hopefully be better than this one. D:**

**Naruto belongs to that guy who made that manga. And no, I don't read mangas, so no spoilers for me please.**

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_"Why__ does__ everything__ bad__ always __have__ to __happen__ to __him__?!"_

He couldn't understand how things had taken this turn. His own words came back to him in a screaming litany, which only served to remind him how completely unfair this whole situation was. Naruto could feel in his trembling fists that he was going to overflow eventually. But still he gritted his teeth, trying to keep down the flames of his anger.

The blonde man with the condescending sneer on his face, wearing the black coats that were imprinted with crimson clouds -symbols of the Akatsuki…casually sat on the limp body of the Kazekage.

On the body of sixteen-year old Gaara.

He wouldn't get up. Why the hell wouldn't he get up? Was Gaara really gonna let that Akatsuki bastard just…just use him like a chair?!

"Gaara! How can you be asleep at a time like this? Stand up already!" he screamed out, waiting, hoping for the telltale sign that showed the Kazekage of the Sand was listening, that at least he was still _breathing._

"_Why does everything…?!"_

"We're the same," he had thought in half-relief, half-horror -the latter making the most impact- years ago when the shinobi of the desert stood in the hospital room. His eyes back then had been frightfully empty. Not cruel, not evil, just completely empty and hollow of any human emotion. Naruto had not even been sure if there was any real hate in them. All that he had seen before him was a boy so incredibly tired and completely fed up with the world.

Even his voice had that deathly emptiness. "I was born a monster…and I have always been alone."

And so the boy from those years ago with the curse of the Nine-Tailed Fox, the dreaded Kyuubi, wanted desperately to run from this shadow image of him. Naruto had realized just how dreadfully close he had been to going down this same lonely path that only led to a violent, sorrowful madness. Too alike in so many ways that he did not want to know, not at all. He remembered thinking that there was no conceivable way he could beat this boy from the other side of the mirror who had gone through such suffering and survived, rewarding him with an unhinged mind.

That loneliness was just too horrible, for it was cruel enough to create Gaara in what twelve-year old Naruto had seen, twisting him into something that could have been avoided. But no one had come to save him, and instead left him in that dark place to fight a losing battle. And Naruto knew he had been lucky to avoid such a fate.

But it was different this time. Now someone will save him! It was not fair at all to Gaara. This man…this son of a bitch that kept smiling…! Naruto paid little attention to the other enemy who appeared to be squatting on the ground. There was nothing else around him now.

"Gaara! Are you listening?!"

"_Why does everything bad always…?!"_

His body was tense, ready to snap forward so he could tear off the blonde Akatsuki's head from his shoulders. But he could feel the eye of Kakashi boring through his skull, warning him to stay back. But how could he just wait there? He needed to get him back now!

"GAARA!"

"Enough, Naruto!"

Again, pulling him back. He didn't want to hear it, didn't want that pitying look from Sakura, that mocking smile of the Akatsuki.

"…You should already know."

No, no, no! He can't leave Gaara alone! Naruto would not believe it, even though he suddenly felt sick at the knowledge, completely at a loss. No…

"That's right. You get it, don't you?" that bastard said, half of his face hidden by a part of his blonde hair. "He's been dead for a while now…" The voice dripped with amusement as the man carelessly tapped against Gaara's cheek with the back of his hand like a piece of wood. _Slap__ slap._

The sound echoed in Naruto's head. It had been so long since he felt such hate, such venomous violent rage toward another. But it was the first time that he ever envisioned tearing through someone's body with such dreadful vividness…and he had never wanted so badly to do just that. Not dead…not _dead__! No!_

"You're the only one who was special."

His eyes, that were now intense and murderous, wavered at the frightening memory.

The eye of Gaara was embedded in his hand again, along with that strange kanji carved into his palm with blood, just as it did on the sand shinobi's forehead. It glared at him in hatred and despair, despising Naruto for what he himself had been denied.

"You're the only one who got to be happy."

"_Why does everything bad always have to happen…?!"_

Naruto's form trembled as he slowly came back to the present. He too had felt that deep, abnormal isolation, but had been blessed with friends, making him give real, genuine smiles for the first time. And Gaara…had stayed alone.

"…have to happen to him…" The young adolescent whispered in extreme guilt. The feeling had clung to him since he first saw those empty eyes, and had tremendously increased when first heard of the kidnapping…guilty for Gaara to have to suffer for so long while Naruto smiled and laughed with others. And just when things had finally changed for the sand shinobi, when things were actually getting better…!

He once again looked at Gaara's unmoving body, focused on his closed eyes. He truly did look like he was merely sleeping, yet…

"Give him back."

Naruto grounded the words in his teeth that were now newly sharpened as those of a feral beast, ready to tear through flesh. He heard the other Akatsuki, the one with the low and wide form, whisper to his cohort. He heard the name Deidara…Deidara… He was dead! _That__ Deidara __was__ dead!_

"Give back Gaara!!"

He screamed in rabid desperation as he charged forward. Naruto knew he had to save him now. He can never let Gaara be alone like that again!

"_Why does everything bad always have to happen to him?!"_

Naruto vowed he would change that.


End file.
